It's not your traditional Operation, and its not exactly easy to pull off just yet with the way the game is in its current state. but with a bit of prior planning and a proper introduction and set up on game night this could be a very exciting and stream-worthy 1-life Narrative event.

And now lets discuss the real challenges this operation comes up against as opposed to a standard force on force OP. I don't want to cover the logistics of starting positions et cetera. I'm more interested in making sure the logistics of negotiating and carrying out a hostage exchange are feasible in squad ops.

First hurdle to overcome: Communication

this is the primary issue that we need to resolve in order to get this Operation workable. In the current game we can't communicate with the opposing team, which means that Negotiating a meeting location in game, and keeping the hostage squad in control while is custody will be challenging.

My Solutions? First. Pre-designate one [OPS] member of experience to represent each team as its "interpreter" and negotiate via a private discord channel before the game goes live. These 'terps' then relay this information to command so he can formulate a plan. This would work ideally if both 'terps' had three ideal locations for the exchange picked beforehand so both sides could find somewhere in the middle to meet.

Second, before the game goes live, each team positions one "caretaker" in with the hostage squad, equipped with only a shovel. The hostage squad must follow this caretaker anywhere he takes them until the point of the hostage exchange and handover. Hopefully this will allow the Hostage squads to know where they are expected to go without further micromanagement through discord. Also, if all else fails - allchat is allowed to get hostages attention

Second hurdle to overcome: Meta-gaming:The next problem I forsee with the OP, is the Meta-gaming. There are two problems:

1 - the hostage squad will always be visible on the mapSolution: Half plot armor, half game play. Game play wise it might be wise to keep your team located away from the hostages until exchange. Plotwise, both forces have methods to track their hostages once in the city. US has Satelites and equipment, INS has the local populace and informers

2 - the hostage squad lead still has his squad lead RadioSolution: the rest of the squad doesn't have comms, and I'm fairly certain you pre-select squadleads from the community ahead of time, so choose fair players, which leads into my final point...

Third hurdle to overcome: SportsmanshipThis one is the Final and least pressing problem, and it boils down to this: DONT SHOOT THE HOSTAGES BEFORE THE EXCHANGE... and follow your caretaker if you're a hostage. This boils down to the community and who plays this OP. if you enforce the hostage rule like you enforce TK's there should not be any issues.

But, that being said I did include a rule where individual hostages can attempt to run, and the team in custody can kill runners, but that may complicate things. Please advise.

TL;DR: Open the OPDOC link, scroll to the bottom, read the Narrative, you'll get a rough idea.